Cyber Dive - JUNE 2024
Designing Trust-Based Approvals for Digital Parenting
My Role
Product Designer
UX Research, User Flows, Visual Design, User Testing
Team
Me
Anirudh Palaskar (Design Lead)
Ihtisham Arif (Dev)
Shivansh Agarwal (AOSP)
Clement Beschu (PM)
Timeline
4 Months, Launched in June 2024
Overview
HIGHLIGHTS
Transforming how families navigate screen time with proactive approvals and thoughtful design
CONTEXT
When screen time turns into a daily battle at home
A modern struggle between trust and control
Modern parents are facing a challenge no generation has encountered before. 73% of children get their first smartphone by age 12, stepping into a digital world long before most families are ready. Yet parental control tools rely on rigid restrictions that feel more like surveillance than support.
This often backfires. Traditional solutions create adversarial dynamics, leading to workarounds, arguments, and growing mistrust between parents and children. What should be a shared conversation turns into daily conflict.
PROBLEM
Parental control tools were solving the wrong problem.
A daily battle disguised as digital safety
Modern tools promised to keep kids safe online, but their rigid, top-down approach created more tension than trust.
Instead of encouraging healthy conversations, they forced families into black-and-white decisions that rarely fit real life.
Existing tools weren’t built for real supervision
Parental control apps sit on top of the OS, offering limited, one-way control that fails to address how families actually manage technology. Cyber Dive’s OS-level access opened the door to build something smarter and more collaborative.
WHY RESEARCH
Before solutions we asked better questions
Why research at all?
We set out to learn whether families want real-time, collaborative approvals and what would make them trust the experience.
Research methods at a glance
We combined literature review, a market research, and a targeted parent survey to balance breadth with depth and turn assumptions into evidence.
Learnings from secondary research and literature review
We reviewed reports and online papers to ground the problem in facts. Early smartphone adoption, rising online harm, and why current parental controls feel like surveillance. These patterns shaped the survey we ran next.
source
Key insights from competitive analysis
We studied leading parental control tools to learn how App Access Requests work: when requests trigger, what context parents get, what options they have, and how children are informed.
Below are the some of the key findings:
3.1
Comp Analysis Table
CANVAS
What we asked to understand parents better
We conducted a structured quant survey on Maze with parents recruited via UserTesting (screened for smartphone owning parents of kids 6–16). The instrument measured behaviors, pain points, and expectations around app approvals.
We focused on timing, context, control granularity, and collaboration, so findings would map directly to product decisions.
Below are some key questions we asked:
Understanding where parents struggled
We conducted a structured quant survey on Maze with parents recruited via UserTesting (screened for smartphone owning parents of kids 6–16). The instrument measured behaviors, pain points, and expectations around app approvals.
Key pain points in parental decision making
Parents often struggle with emotional and inconsistent decisions when approving apps for their kids. Their choices are influenced by limited context, delayed alerts, and unclear communication tools. These gaps create frustration, conflict, and weakened trust within families.
Opportunities that guided our next steps
Following our research insights, we conducted collaborative brainstorming sessions to translate pain points into actionable product opportunities.
RESEARCH TAKEAWAY
Research uncovered powerful insights that shaped 3 core design principles: proactive guidance, contextual transparency, & relationship preservation.
DESIGN PROCESS & ITERATION
Rapid Prototyping for Validation
What Parents Need Most in Digital Supervision
Modern parents aren’t looking to control every move, they’re seeking balance. They want tools that give them confidence in their child’s choices, simplify how they manage app permissions, and keep communication open without feeling intrusive.
What Parents Need Most in Digital Supervision
Modern children are growing up in a world where technology is both freedom and responsibility. They don’t want to be watched — they want to be understood.
3.5
Initial Suggested User Flow
CANVAS
Rapid Iteration for Smarter Decision-Making
Working within startup constraints, I prioritized high-fidelity mockups to quickly validate concepts with stakeholders and users. This approach allowed us to test critical user flows before development investment.
OPERATING SYSTEM LIMITATION
I designed the flow to trigger after tapping “Install,” but later learned our OS couldn’t intercept Google Play actions
Learning from a technical roadblock
During early prototyping, I designed the request flow to trigger immediately after a child tapped "install" on the Play Store.
This seemed intuitive from a UX standpoint but later proved technically impossible. Because Cyber Dive's OS doesn’t control default Google apps, we couldn't intercept the Play Store’s install action directly.
New Userflow Heading
We had to redesign the user flow after hitting a technical roadblock, our initial prototype tried to trigger an action immediately after a Play Store install, which wasn’t technically possible.
With input from the AOSP team, we reworked the flow to gate access post-download, maintaining the intended UX while staying within system constraints.
4.3
Final Userflow
CANVAS
From first draft to final design
After refining the user flow and addressing technical constraints, we evolved the interface from an early concept into a polished, validated solution. This section highlights the key shifts between Design V1 and V2, showing how usability feedback and feasibility checks shaped a more intuitive, reliable experience.
USABILITY TESTING
Testing the Experience Before Perfecting It
Using data and observation to validate assumptions
Before moving to high-fidelity design, I tested how well users understood the request flow to validate assumptions, spot usability issues, and gather insights for the next iteration.
Pilot first, data next, insights always.
We began with a quick pilot, then ran usability tests on UserTesting and Maze with 20 participants to gather both behavioral data and direct feedback.
Learnings from UT heading
These usability findings became the foundation for our next design cycles. They revealed critical gaps in critical and context that directly influence how parents interacted with the App Access Request system.
More importantly, they helped validate early signs of product–market fit, confirming that our concept addressed real parental needs and decision-making behaviors.
LEARNINGS
Reflecting, Learning, and Growing Through Every Project
Lessons That Shaped My Process
Each project helped me build confidence, improve collaboration, and make smarter design decisions. These lessons shaped how I approach problem-solving and teamwork in future projects.
